The most depressing thing about Detroit’s bankruptcy isn’t the hours victims wait for police responses, sprawling neighborhoods reverting back to nature, historic buildings crumbling to ruin, or the once-vanquished problems of illiteracy and sex slavery climbing out of their graves. It’s certainly not the financial quandary the city’s in, or the uncertain fate of its pensioners and employees. The most hopeless thing about Detroit is the false hope which hangs on despite reason and sanity. Read more …

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, but I did end up finding out about Chrysler’s dramatic attempt to frame the massive federal bailout of their floundering corporation as something to get patriotic about. During the half-time commercial break, Clint Eastwood snarls that “It’s half-time in America” . . . Read more …